A lot has happened since our last newsletter.  We had intended to spend one week in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala and two weeks in Honduras with the first two weeks devoted to teaching values to professors.   However, we were told not to come to the university in Quetzaltenango because they did not want us to teach values “based on capitalism and religion.”  They see our values as helping the rich at the expense of the poor.  This is far from accurate but after 37 years of civil war in Guatemala I can understand their reluctance.  This was a little discouraging but the two weeks we spent in Honduras more than made up for it.

Jim and Barb Hermanson and Charly and I taught a leadership conference to about 50 engineering students on Saturday, Sept 27 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  This was fewer students than we expected but went over well.  The next week Barb taught her expository writing class in 8 classes a day for 4 days, Charly taught “Character Qualities of a Successful Life” in 5 classes a day for 3 days, and Jim and I taught our values conference three times to engineering professors.  This was the first time we have had the opportunity to teach professors and it went over very well.

All of our teaching was in the school of engineering and the dean of engineering was very excited and supportive of what we are doing.  We had breakfast with him on the last day we were there and shared with him our desire to have a semester course taught to all the new students in engineering.  He agreed with this and we are now signed up to write a textbook on the subject and teach the first week of the course in March, 2009. We will train 15-20 teachers who will then teach the class for the rest of the semester.  This is something to really get excited about! It will give us the opportunity to reach all of the new engineering students in the coming year.  The dean’s intention is to have this taught as part of the curriculum. This is everything we had hoped for.

We also visited the US embassy in Tegucigalpa to talk about teaching the values course, and also about bringing the ‘Sons and Brothers’ to share their special bluegrass/western music in Honduras.  There are many details to work out but it is interesting that the people in the embassy were already looking for a bluegrass band to come to Honduras.  Timing certainly is important!  They also put us in contact with an Air Force major at the Palmerola base in Honduras who will help us ship needed equipment to Honduras via the US Air Force.  This will be a big help in sending computers, medical supplies and even cars, if we are able to do it.

On Saturday, Jim and Barb took a bus to a private school in La Entrada, where they taught expository writing on Sunday. Kent Brown, Chris Cardillo, Paul Stuckenbruck and Jeremy Reed from New Life EFC and Ryan Bell and Sara Baas from City Pres arrived on Sunday.  There are many stories to tell.  Ask Jim and Barb about the bus ride.  Paul made a real hit with his talks on Journalism and it looks like they might start a student newspaper on campus because of his teaching.  On Thursday, Sara, Kent, Jeremy, Jim and I traveled to Comayaqua to teach there.  This went quite well, although Sara had to teach on the street because there was some kind of medical strike at the hospital where she had planned to talk, and Kent had to be flexible and teach something besides electricity to his class.  The director of the university would like to have a ministry on campus similar to what we have in San Pedro Sula and we have a young man to lead it.

To summarize, we talked to 303 students and professors in Tegucigalpa and 1824 students and professors in San Pedro Sula, and an unknown number in Comayagua, as well as classes at several private schools.  Many of the students and professors were excited about what we taught and would like to have further contact with us.

This trip was a significant step in our efforts to build leaders who will change Central America.  We still need your help in teaching, and also financially.  If you are able to help financially, please send a check to:

Professionals to the World
19597 E. Floyd Ave.
Aurora, CO 80013-3736
(Professionals to the World is a tax exempt 501.c.3 educational organization)

Thank you for caring for students in Central America!

John Potts
Executive Director